The 2024 audit has exposed systemic mismanagement at the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE), revealing millions of leones lost to stalled projects, ghost staff, and a broken results platform that has left students and parents in the dark for two years.
The audit found that the MBSSE Result Checker platform, designed to allow students and parents to access public examination results online, has been non-functional for the past two years. Auditors warned that the prolonged outage erodes transparency, undermines public trust, and disproportionately penalizes rural students, widening educational inequality and delaying life-changing decisions about further studies or career paths.
In procurement, the audit uncovered extreme delays in the supply of teaching materials and school equipment. A contract awarded to Commission Enterprises in June 2021 for NLe6,785,030, with NLe2,035,509 paid in advance, remained unfulfilled 28 months later. Likewise, AKJ Enterprise, contracted in March 2021 to supply and install beds and accessories at Government Secondary School, Jimmi, failed to deliver 34 months after receiving an advance of NLe434,843.
Even more concerning, auditors noted that the performance bonds and advance payment guarantees for both contracts had expired, leaving public funds highly vulnerable to loss. The Ministry was urged to enforce contract completion or terminate the agreements, and to recover a total of NLe2,470,352 in advance payments.
Payroll controls were equally weak. The audit revealed that two deceased staff members continued to receive salaries, totalling NLe112,766 from the dates of their deaths to December 2024. The Human Resources Directorate failed to notify the HRMO and Accountant-General’s Department, allowing government resources to be wasted. Auditors recommended that the Ministry remove deceased staff from the payroll, recover the payments, and establish formal internal controls to prevent recurrence.
Adding to the scandal, 38 staff members with valid pin codes did not report for physical verification, yet collectively received NLe1,891,499 in net salaries for 2024. Auditors warned that salaries could have been paid to ghost employees, further eroding public trust and wasting scarce resources.
The audit paints a stark picture of institutional dysfunction, highlighting stalled contracts, unverified staff, and failed digital systems. It calls for urgent reforms in technology, procurement, and payroll management to protect public funds, restore accountability, and safeguard equitable access to education across Sierra Leone.
